Doubles round-up: No.1 seeds Chan & Hingis roll on in Wuhan

WUHAN, China -- No.1 seeds and US Open champions Chan Yung-Jan and Martina Hingis rolled through their quarterfinal match on Thursday, leading a handful of highly-seeded doubles teams into the semifinals of the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open.

The Taiwanese/Swiss pair dismantled the No.6 seeds, Germany's Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Kveta Peschke of the Czech Republic, 6-1, 6-0. The top-seeded team never faced a break point during the 45-minute encounter.

Chan and Hingis have been on a tear all year, having already won seven titles, which will lead to Hingis reclaiming the World No.1 ranking from Lucie Safarova next week. They were one of the first teams to qualify for the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global, and look to be headed into the season finale in incredible form.

Another pairing who have already qualified for Singapore, No.2-seeded Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina, were not as fortunate. The Russian teammates, who won Wimbledon earlier in the year, were forced to retire while trailing 3-4 to the unseeded pair of Shuko Aoyama of Japan and Yang Zhaoxuan of China.

Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua, seeded No.4, will be the opponents for Aoyama and Yang in the Wuhan semifinals, as they eased past 5th-seeded Gabriela Dabrowski and Xu Yifan, 6-3, 6-4.

The Australians have also already punched their ticket to the WTA Finals, and Barty in particular is having a superb week in Wuhan, making the semifinals in singles as well as doubles.

Rounding out the final four teams in Wuhan are the No.3 seeds Sania Mirza and Peng Shuai, who eked out a win over 7th-seeded Alicja Rosolska and Abigail Spears, 3-6, 6-3, 10-5. Rosolska and Spears led the match tiebreak 3-0 before Mirza and Peng reeled off 10 of the last 12 points to claim victory.

The Indian/Chinese tandem, comprised of two former World No.1 players in doubles, are having strong success in only their fifth tournament together. They will take on the top seeds in the semifinals, meaning Mirza will be across the net from Hingis, her long-time former doubles partner, in the next round.